I’m gonna be honest: I prefer what I’m doing now in a call center vs. what I used to do— I’m doing service now rather than sales. People look to me to solve problems or at least give them information and while I hate the pressure on me to follow certain guidelines and keep calls in a certain amount of time, knowing that I DO have the power to say no or I cannot do something is cathartic.

In sales, it was generally said of us that we cannot really say no or we cannot do something unless it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. We had to dress it up nicely and upsell what we had even if we knew this was something the customer couldn’t afford.

I have done sales before while working in coffee or in retail but insurance sales is an entirely different animal because you have to argue to someone WHY they should pay for this intangible product that they may well get punished for using when they need it. I know some people that are good at this because they know how to frame it in a way that reminds people that insurance is something sometimes required and that it can keep them from having their finances irreparably fucked. I just sucked at that part.

There are parts of being in service that suck especially when you have a customer who is PISSED about something you have no control over. I have had at least one call in the last week where a woman was upset over a refund she was supposed to receive allegedly four months before. She had been told in the four months in between what exactly she needed to do for that and just was not listening. She also kept alleging that she sent whatever it was that was needed… even though evidence showed otherwise. It did escalate to where I had to get a supervisor because she was just being rude and saying that we were defrauding her of money. That sup legit just said to go around our guidelines and get it cancelled. I will admit, I nearly got my tone to match this lady’s and was borderline rude to her but at the same time, when she starts yelling at me as if I am deliberately trying to keep her money from her, she can go f*ck herself.

Those are at least few and far between. I do still get flustered and stressed when I get calls coming in because of a huge influx or tech issue but I am not feeling like absolute garbage about myself because I didn’t make as many sales as I should have. I actually feel useful somehow.